Talks between British Airways and it's cabin crews broke down
again over the weekend, prompting flight attendants to walk off the
job on a busy travel weekend both in the UK and the U.S.

The labor action reportedly grounded as many as 22,000 travelers
at airports around Great Britain, but BA said it was attempting to
continue to operate at least 70 percent of its long-haul flights
out of Heathrow, along with 55 percent of the short-haul
routes.

The New York Times reports that Unite The Union, which
represents the BA air crews, said support for the strike was
"solid", and that additional job actions are under consideration.
BA cabin staff are scheduled to walk off the job again on June 5th
if their issues are not resolved.

The negotiations between the union and the
financially-struggling carrier stalled again last Friday. While a
government mediator said new talks should get underway as soon as
possible, none have been scheduled so far. BA is trying to save
$231 million per year over each of the next 10 years in
part by hiring any new air crews under a different, read lower
scale, system of pay and benefits than current air crews
receive.

The union and the airline gave conflicting reports as to how
many flight actually operated after talks broke down. Unite says
121 of 333 flights scheduled for Friday were canceled, including 20
long-haul flights. The airline said only that a "large majority" of
flights operated normally. BA also said that the strike was
"ignored" at Gatwick, and that London City airport reported no
cancellations. Unite says it will not return to the bargaining
table unless BA gives back employee travel perks to those who
honored picket lines in March, and agrees to talk about the jobs of
workers who were suspended during that earlier job action.